“For how else, but by aiming, is excellence to be attained? It’s not often one begins a sand castle on a lazy summer morning – patty baking by the blue lagoon- only to- by gosh!- achieve, thanks to a series of sandy serendipities, an Alhambra with all its pools by afternoon.”

William H. Gass, “Mr Gaddis and his goddamn books” in Temple of texts, Knopf, $26.95